Firefly Watching in Palawan: Another exciting trip to check out
Save at least one night to get away from the bars and noise of the
city. Experience the Puerto Princesa Bay at Night and book a firefly
watching tour that will allow you to get closer to nature while watching
the natural lights coming from the flickering creatures in the absence
of the sun.
The adventure of firefly watching will start at Puerto Princesa City Baywalk around six in the evening, From there, you have to ride a boat with maximum capacity of 23 person which is big enough to accommodate us. It usually takes 20-25 minutes travel by boat going to the other side of the bay where the firefly site was located. Puerto Princesa Bay was surrounded by thousands of trees, mangroves, and mountains that make the bay so calm. So, if you are wondering if this is a safe tour, definitely it’s a YES!
The first stop of this tour is on their floating restaurant where you can eat your FREE dinner which is already included in the package. Floating restaurant is just near and it takes 3 minutes travel from Puerto Princesa Baywalk. We just listened to our guide’s trivia’s about fireflies while travelling to their floating restaurant. Interestingly, she seems to know much and I’ve learned a lot from her!
After 3 minutes of travel by boat, we already reached their floating restaurant. The food was already served. Their staff was very accommodating and they welcomed us in a very nice way. They also helped us where to sit so we can feel comfortable while were eating our dinner. There are lots of choices in the food that they prepared for us. There was a steamed crab, adobong manok (famous Filipino food), grilled pork, fried fish, and their famous dish “Talong” or Eggplant with the twist of adobo sauce, and for your dessert, they have cucumber, banana, or watermelon. It’s a buffet style dinner so you can eat all you can! While eating, there was also a live singer performing for us which makes the dinner so romantic!
After eating our dinner, we already go back to our boat to start the most awaited firefly watching! From the floating restaurant, we need to travel from 10-12 minutes to reach the firefly watching site.
There are different kinds of fireflies in the world and some of them
can be easily distinguish which one is the female and male. In other
countries, only the male fireflies can produce light and female cannot.
But here in Palawan, both female and male can produce lights. Male
fireflies have a brighter light compare to the female fireflies. The
light that they produced serves as their warning to danger, for mating,
and for communication to each other. The mating season of fireflies is 5
days after full moon and this was the time where you can find many
fireflies. The sad thing about this is after mating season, male
fireflies died after having intercourse with female fireflies. The
lifespan of male fireflies lasts up to 30 days and can extend up to 15
days if they are sexually active while the female fireflies can find
their another mates till the next mating season.
After a few minutes, we finally reached the firefly watching site located at the Sicsican River which is at the adjacent of the North Island. Now, we have to transfer into the smaller boat to enter the Sicsican River. One of the attractions in Sicsican river is the bio-luminescent plankton that glows like a glitter when you touch the water and I am lucky to see them shining!
There are three kinds of mangroves in this river- the Well-rooted mangroves, Nipa, and Pagadpad. Pagadpad mangroves serves as the home of the fireflies where they can lay their thousand of eggs but only few will survive. The leaves of this mangroves tree serves as their food also. The firefly watching tour usually takes from 30-35 minutes long. It was really nice experience to see mangroves trees lit like a real Christmas trees with Christmas lights glowing in the dark. During our firefly watching tour, we are not allowed to use flash when taking pictures because it’s prohibited and only the red light from our tour guide is allowed. The purpose of this is to attract the fireflies to illumine themselves. Unfortunately, our camera is useless because of the dark environment and even the best performance setting of our camera fails to capture the fireflies. After 35 minutes of tour, we finally headed back to the port. I highly recommend this tour for every families and couples to spend their time together and just enjoy the night.
TIPS:
Doing this tour is much better before and after fullmoon because if it's fullmoon, only 50% of the community of fireflies can be seen and most of them are male fireflies. This is because of the sea level become low and the female fireflies will lay their eggs at the roots of the mangroves.
The adventure of firefly watching will start at Puerto Princesa City Baywalk around six in the evening, From there, you have to ride a boat with maximum capacity of 23 person which is big enough to accommodate us. It usually takes 20-25 minutes travel by boat going to the other side of the bay where the firefly site was located. Puerto Princesa Bay was surrounded by thousands of trees, mangroves, and mountains that make the bay so calm. So, if you are wondering if this is a safe tour, definitely it’s a YES!
 |
| Baywalk (Photo Credit to the Owner) |
The first stop of this tour is on their floating restaurant where you can eat your FREE dinner which is already included in the package. Floating restaurant is just near and it takes 3 minutes travel from Puerto Princesa Baywalk. We just listened to our guide’s trivia’s about fireflies while travelling to their floating restaurant. Interestingly, she seems to know much and I’ve learned a lot from her!
After 3 minutes of travel by boat, we already reached their floating restaurant. The food was already served. Their staff was very accommodating and they welcomed us in a very nice way. They also helped us where to sit so we can feel comfortable while were eating our dinner. There are lots of choices in the food that they prepared for us. There was a steamed crab, adobong manok (famous Filipino food), grilled pork, fried fish, and their famous dish “Talong” or Eggplant with the twist of adobo sauce, and for your dessert, they have cucumber, banana, or watermelon. It’s a buffet style dinner so you can eat all you can! While eating, there was also a live singer performing for us which makes the dinner so romantic!
 |
| Adobong Talong (Eggplant) |
After eating our dinner, we already go back to our boat to start the most awaited firefly watching! From the floating restaurant, we need to travel from 10-12 minutes to reach the firefly watching site.
 |
| (Photo Credit to the Owner) |
 |
| Firefly (Photo Credit to the Owner) |
After a few minutes, we finally reached the firefly watching site located at the Sicsican River which is at the adjacent of the North Island. Now, we have to transfer into the smaller boat to enter the Sicsican River. One of the attractions in Sicsican river is the bio-luminescent plankton that glows like a glitter when you touch the water and I am lucky to see them shining!
 |
| Transferring to Small Boat (Photo Credit to the Owner) |
There are three kinds of mangroves in this river- the Well-rooted mangroves, Nipa, and Pagadpad. Pagadpad mangroves serves as the home of the fireflies where they can lay their thousand of eggs but only few will survive. The leaves of this mangroves tree serves as their food also. The firefly watching tour usually takes from 30-35 minutes long. It was really nice experience to see mangroves trees lit like a real Christmas trees with Christmas lights glowing in the dark. During our firefly watching tour, we are not allowed to use flash when taking pictures because it’s prohibited and only the red light from our tour guide is allowed. The purpose of this is to attract the fireflies to illumine themselves. Unfortunately, our camera is useless because of the dark environment and even the best performance setting of our camera fails to capture the fireflies. After 35 minutes of tour, we finally headed back to the port. I highly recommend this tour for every families and couples to spend their time together and just enjoy the night.
TIPS:
Doing this tour is much better before and after fullmoon because if it's fullmoon, only 50% of the community of fireflies can be seen and most of them are male fireflies. This is because of the sea level become low and the female fireflies will lay their eggs at the roots of the mangroves.
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